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TOC > MSC data > Observations by station > Observations by station on MSC Datamart

Surface Weather and Marine Observation Markup Language (SWOB Met-ML) by station in XML format

This page describes the surface weather and marine observation data available in XML format.

Data location

MSC Datamart data can be automatically retrieved with the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) as soon as they become available. An overview and examples to access and use the Meteorological Service of Canada's open data is also available.

The data is available using the HTTPS protocol and resides in a directory that is plainly accessible to a web browser. Visiting that directory with an interactive browser will yield a raw listing of links, each link being a downloadable XML file.

Data are available at the following addresses :

where :

  • YYYYMMDD : Observation date in UTC.
  • XXXX : Station code (WMO ID).

Moreover, there is a special directory containing the last observations received from each station : https://dd.weather.gc.ca/observations/swob-ml/latest/

Note: A dynamic list of observation stations is available and updated daily.

  • Marine observations :

https://dd.weather.gc.ca/observations/swob-ml/marine/moored-buoys/{YYYMMDD}/{XXXXXXX}

where :

  • YYYYMMDD : Observation date in UTC.
  • XXXXXXX : Station code (WMO ID), could be 5 or 7 digits.

Note: A list of marine observations is available.

  • Partner observations :

https://dd.weather.gc.ca/observations/swob-ml/partners/{NETWORK}/{YYYMMDD}/{MSC-ID}

where :

  • NETWORK : Acronym of partner's network.
  • YYYYMMDD : Observation date in UTC.
  • MSC-ID : Partner’s unique MSC station id.

Notes:

  • A list of partners stations is available.
  • The Department of Fisheries and Ocean moored buoys (aka Viking buoys) are seasonal. They are typically recalled in November and re-deployed in June. From November to June there will be no data transmitted from the buoys

Nomenclature

  • SWOB files follow this naming convention :

YYYY-MM-DD-hhmm-XXXX-TYPE-CCz-swob.xml

where :

  • YYYY-MM-DD-hhmm : Observation date in UTC.
  • XXXX : Station code (WMO ID).
  • TYPE : AUTO or MANNED station.
  • CCz : Optional. Cor stands for Correction and z is a letter indication the number of corrections ('A' stands for the first, 'B' for the second, etc.). By default, this field would not be there for the first observation.
  • swob.xml: Constant string indicating the product and the format.

In the 'latest' directory, the file names are static for each station and take the form of:

latest_XXXX_TYPE_swob.xml

where :

  • latest : Constant string indicating that this is the latest observation received from this station.
  • XXXX : Station code.
  • TYPE : AUTO or MANNED station.
  • swob.xml : Constant string indicating the product and the format.

Example :

2013-09-20-1300-CYAZ-MAN-swob.xml

This file contains the manual observation of the September 20th 2013 at 13:00 UTC for the station CYAZ (Tofino).

  • Marine SWOB files follow the naming convention :

YYYY-MM-DD-hhmm-XXXXXXX-TYPE-swob.xml

where :

  • YYYY-MM-DD-hhmm : Observation date and time in UTC.
  • XXXXXXX : Station code (WMO ID). Could be either 5 or 7 digits.
  • TYPE : AUTO station.
  • swob.xml : Constant string indicating the product and the format.

Example :

2019-01-27-0000-4400488-AUTO-swob.xml

  • Partner SWOB files follow the naming convention :

YYYY-MM-DD-hhmm-network-ID-AUTO-swob.xml

where :

  • YYYY-MM-DD-hhmm : Observation date in UTC.
  • network : Partner's network.
  • ID : Partner’s unique MSC station ID.
  • swob.xml : constant string indicating the product and the format.

Example :

2018-01-06-1400-bc-env-aq-138-AUTO-swob.xml

Note

The specification of the data format is available in the SWOB-ML product guide.

Support

If you have any questions about this data, please contact us.

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